


As Brave as You

by gray_autumn_sky



Series: Set in Storybrooke, Canon Divergent [5]
Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: F/M, Other
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-21
Updated: 2018-07-21
Packaged: 2019-06-13 19:26:23
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,168
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15371655
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/gray_autumn_sky/pseuds/gray_autumn_sky
Summary: When 13 year old Peanut (actually named Robyn in this fic) comes out to Regina, she’s worried a lot of things, including how her father will react. Regina talks to her and comforts her, and in the end, comes out to her, too.Written for Bisexual Regina Mills Week.





	As Brave as You

“Knock, knock,” Regina says in a quiet voice as she taps her knuckles against the frame of Robyn’s door. “Can I come in?”

“No.”

Regina sighs. It breaks her heart to see her daughter this way–so upset, and curled up on her bed with her pink and white baby blanket tucked under her cheek. The blanket had once gone everywhere with her, but as the years passed, the blanket became less and less a part of her–unless she was upset. And then, it’d suddenly, almost magically, reappear to offer it’s comfort.

“Peanut, what’s the matter. It’s not like you to–”

“Go away,” she mutters as she sniffs back her tears. “And don’t call me that. I’m not a baby anymore.”

“No, you’re not,” Regina says as she steps into the room. “But you’re still  _my_ baby.” A grin tugs onto her lips as Robyn’s eyes roll. “And it’s hard for me and your dad to see you–”

“He’s not with you, is he?” Robyn cuts in, sitting up and looking to her door with wide eyes–and Regina’s brow furrows as Robyn breathes out a sigh of relief and then, her cheeks flush red. “I don’t want to talk to him about this,” she says in a quiet voice as her eyes fall to her lap. “It’s bad enough you’re going to make me talk about it.”

“I’m not going to  _make_ you do anything, Robyn.” She sighs and nods, and Regina watches as she rolls a corner of her blanket between her thumb and forefinger. “But I would like to know why you’re so upset.” She pauses, giving her daughter a chance to speak, but when she doesn’t, she tries again. “Robyn, I can’t make it better, if you don’t tell me what  _it_  is.”

“You can’t make it better.”

A grin tugs onto Regina’s lips as she reaches out and tucks one of Robyn’s loose blonde curls behind her ear. “Try me.”

“No.”

“I just want to understand. It’s not like you to snap at Rol–”

Robyn looks up. “He gives  _terrible_ advice,” she cuts in. “He  _deserved_ to have me yell at him.”

“Did he?”

“Yes!” Regina’s heart aches as she watches Robyn’s eyes go wide, then fill with tears. “He told me to–” Her voice halts and she looks so scared, and then her eyes fall back to her lap. “Nevermind. It doesn’t matter.”

“Pea–” Regina stops. “Robyn, I think it does.”

“I  _can’t_ tell you.”

“You can tell me anything.”

“You say that,” Robyn says, sniffing back her tears as she looks up to her mother. “But… you don’t… I mean… what if there’s something that…”

“Peanut, if you’re in trouble–”

“I’m not in trouble,” she’s quick to say. “Like, I didn’t get in trouble in school or something.” Robyn looks up at her and chew at her lip as she continues to curl the corner of her blanket around her fingers. “Can you… promise not to tell anyone.”

Regina nods. “Of course.”

“Not even dad.”

“Robyn…”

“Not even dad!” She repeats, her voice cracking as her eyes widen. “And certainly not my  _other_ mom.” She shakes her head, and once more, she focuses down on her lap. “I won’t tell you if you can’t keep my secret.”

Drawing in a breath, Regina nods. “Alright. I promise. I won’t tell them.”

Robyn looks up at her and then, a grin tugs onto her lips as she watches her curl her hand into a fist and stick out her pinkie. “Swear?”

“I swear,” Regina replies, looping her own pinkie finger around her daughter. “Now, tell me.”

For a moment, Robyn hesitates. “So, you know my friend, Allie, right?”

Regina nods. “I’ve known Alexandria since she was born. You went over to her house for a sleepover last weekend.”

“Yeah…”

“What about her?”

“Well… I… “ She sighs. “I asked Roland how to tell if…” Her voice trails off and her cheeks flush. “Oh, god. This is so embarrassing.” Blinking, she looks up at Regina. “Can we just forget that I said anything. I can’t do this. I can’t tell  _you_ about this. I’ll just apologize to Roland and–”

“You like her.”

“What?”

“Am I right?”

Robyn’s eyes widen. “How did you–”

“How did I know?” Regina asks, as a smile edges onto her lips. “Just a guess.”

“Oh,” Robyn murmurs as looks down at her blanket.

“So, what happened?” Regina asks, reaching out and tipping up her daughter’s chin. “What did you ask Roland about?”

Robyn draws in a breath. “I asked him… how to know when someone likes you.”

“Because you thought Allie might like you?”

Robyn nods. “But she doesn’t… not even as a friend now.”

“Oh, Peanut…” Regina breathes out as she slides her arm around her daughter. She presses a kiss to her hair and rubs her hand over her arm. “So, what happened?”

“I asked her if she wanted to go on a date with me and–” Her voice halts and Regina watches as a few tears stray down her cheeks. “She was so mean about it.”

“I’m sorry, Peanut.”

“I feel like such a freak,” Robyn says, looking up at her with wide teary eyes. “And now everyone in the eighth grade know that I like girls.” She sighs and looks away. “They already thought I was weird enough because I’m named after my dad.”

“I told your mother that wasn’t a good idea, but, well… you know how she is when she gets an idea stuck in her head.”

A hint of a grin edges onto Robyn’s lips. “But did you guys even  _try_ to talk her out of giving me Pistachio as a middle name?”

“She didn’t even tell us about that one until it was on your birth certificate, and the ink was already dry.”

“It could still be changed,” Robyn tells her. “I looked it up.” She shrugs. “I do it myself, but I’m not eighteen.”

“Don’t you dare!” Regina says, her eyes widening as she stares at her daughter. “It might have taken some getting used to, but I really love your name, and I think one day, you will, too.”

Robyn’s eyes roll. “Somehow I doubt that. I’m already enough of a freak without–”

“You’re not a freak,” Regina cuts in, pressing another kiss to her hair before pulling back to look at her daughter. “Liking girls is perfectly normal.”

“Yeah,” Robyn scoffs. “For boys, and I’m–”

“No,” Regina cuts in. “Robyn, it’s perfectly normal for  _girls_ to like girls, too.”

Her eyes roll, and she sniffs as she bats her hand across her eyes. “You have to tell me that. You’re my mom.”

“I don’t  _have_ to tell you anything. I’m telling you that because it’s true, even if a bunch of middle schoolers don’t think it is.”

Taking a breath, Regina pulls her into a hug–and for just a few minutes, she holds her. She rocks her back and forth and she rubs her back, and she wishes more than anything she could make this better and that she could convince her that there was nothing wrong with her, that what she was feeling really was perfectly normal–but of course, to Robyn, that would only sound like something a mother was  _supposed to say_  to her daughter.

“How long have you known?”

Robyn sighs and looks back at her. “Since kindergarten… whenever my friends and I would play house, we’d always have two moms… and that was always my idea.” She shrugs. “I thought that was normal because all the kids in this house have two moms, but… at some point, I realized that I never really wanted there to be a dad, too. It just… felt right for there to just be two moms.” Her eyes widen. “That doesn’t mean that I don’t–”

“I know you love your father,” Regina cuts in, as a grin tugs up at the corner of her mouth. “And I know that he loves you, too.”

She blinks. “Please don’t tell him.”

Regina takes a breath. “I won’t, but not because I’m worried about how he’d react. I’m not telling him because this is  _your_ secret to tell, not mine.” Regina watches as Robyn chews at her bottom lip and nervously curls the blanket between her fingers. “Robyn, he loves you and–”

“I can’t tell him,” she cuts in, and again her eyes fill with tears. “I don’t want him to–”

“This isn’t going to change how he feels about you,” Regina says gently as she combs her fingers through Robyn’s hair. “You’re his daughter and he adores you.”

“You don’t know that,” she says, her voice barely audible as her voice catches in her throat. “You can’t.”

“That he adores you?”

“No,” Robyn sighs. “The… other thing.”

“Oh, well…” Regina draws in a breath. “I’m pretty certain of that, too.”

Robyn blinks. “How?”

“Because he was supportive when I told him that I’m bisexual.” Robyn’s eyes widen and her lips part, and Regina chuckles softly. “You didn’t know that, did you?”

Robyn shakes her head. “I just sort of… assumed since you’re married to my dad that…”

“Well, that’s where the bi comes in,” Regina says with a shrug of her shoulders. “I like men and I like women. I ended up with you dad, but I could just as easily have ended up with a woman.”

Robyn blinks. “H-how long has… I mean… when did you…” She swallows. “I mean…”

Regina’s eyes narrow and she grins. “I’m not sure what you’re asking exactly, but… I told your dad on our third date. We had a picnic in my office and we were talking about past loves and… so I told him.” Combing her fingers though Robyn’s hair, Regina smiles at the memory. “And I realized that I liked both men and women when I was about your age, maybe just a little younger.”

“Really?”

Regina nods. “I had this friend. Her name was Claire and we were really close and, at some point, I realized that I had a crush on her, but right around the same time, I also had a crush on the stable boy on my parents estate.”

“Daniel…”

“Yeah,” Regina says, nodding again. “We were all friends and… it was really confusing for me, but I did know that I liked both of them.”

“Did you tell her?”

“No,” Regina says with a sigh. “I wasn’t as brave as you are.”

“I’m not brave.”

“Telling Allie how you feel about her was brave, and I’m sorry that it didn’t go the way that you hoped.”

A little grin tugs up at the corner of Robyn’s mouth, and then it fades. “But you did tell Daniel.”

“Claire’s family moved and… I didn’t tell Daniel that I liked him until I was much older.” She grins. “Like i said, I wasn’t as brave as you are.”

At that, Robyn grins–and Regina presses a kiss to her temple. “I love you, and you dad does, too. I won’t say anything, but if you do want to tell him, it won’t change the way he feels about you. You’re always going to be his little girl, Pea–” Regina sighs. “Sorry.”

“Can I… confess something else?”

“Of course you can.”

“I’ll still roll my eyes and pretend to hate it, but… I actually kinda like when you and dad call me Peanut.”

Regina bites down on her lip. “Can I tell your dad  _that_?” She asks, “I think a little piece of him dies every time you ask him not to call you that.”

“Yeah, you can tell him,” Robyn says as a little grin edges onto her lips. “But, I’ll tell him the other thing… when I’m ready to.”

Regina nods and kisses her again. “I’m glad you told me.”

“Well, it’s not like you would have dropped it if I hadn’t told you,” Robyn says, grinning up at her. “But I’m glad I told you, too.” And then her grin turns mischievous. “And since we’re on the topic of not telling things, can you not tell my other mom that I looked into changing my name. I can’t decide if I don’t want to hurt her feelings or if I want to save it for a  _really_ good argument.”

Laughing out, Regina hooks her arm around Robyn and pulls her in, pressing a wet kiss onto her cheek–and before she can squirm away or complain, she lets her go. “Dinner will be ready in about twenty minutes,” she says as he rises to her feet. “And it’s your turn to set the table, so go wash up and then come down.” She offers her a quick wink. “If you don’t, Roland will beat you to it and you’ll be stuck washing dishes… and you’ll have  _another_ reason to be mad at him.”

Robyn’s eyes roll and Regina help but smile as Robyn mutters something under her breath about her brother and rolls off of her bed.


End file.
